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Rover Finds Ancient Streambed On Martian Surface
sighted writes "NASA reports that its Curiosity rover mission has found evidence that a stream once ran vigorously — and for a sustained amount of time — across the area on Mars where the rover is driving. There is, of course, earlier evidence for the presence of water on Mars, but NASA says this evidence, images of rocks containing ancient streambed gravels, is the first of its kind."
What else would it be besides water? Liquid Hydrogen?
Considering the place were Mars occupies in our Solar System, I don't see how it could be anything other than water.
it wasn't a liquid form of the atmosphere, carbon dioxide goes to solid. wasn't the 3% nitrogen, too warm. certainly not the argon, also too warm. maybe the NASA boffins know a bit more than you?
So we spend billions to look at dirt !!
Look, touch, analyze. It sure beats sending 2-3 meatbags on Mars to do the same thing.
There are other fluids than water that can sustain a semicolloidal solution or carry sediments. I assume that scientists now have to figure out what fluid flowed, rather than simply assuming that it had to be water.
I take it you've never heard of Occam's Razor. Given the composition of Mars and other evidence gathered to date water is by FAR the most likely substance to have caused this.
There are other fluids than water that can sustain a semicolloidal solution or carry sediments. I assume that scientists now have to figure out what fluid flowed, rather than simply assuming that it had to be water.
Zap it with a laser and conduct at spectrum analysis on it and see what elements pop up.
Without proclaiming any expertise, I'd say that the erosion and eddy patterns left behind would be informative, since they would be indicative of the viscosity of the liquid. The pattern of sediment would drop hints towards its density. Water, CO2 and other highly-vaporous substances would not leave much, if any discernible residue or precipitate compared many other fluids. Some fluids would react with certain payload elements, other with different payload elements (in the structural meaning of the term "element", not the chemical one).
There's a lot you can learn just ogling the pictures.
THEN zap it with a laser!
I see Thoat tracks.
* Carthago Delenda Est *
You're doing it wrong.
Try looking at the closeup image. You know, the one that shows the nice, rounded stones. Just like the ones you'd find in a stream bed.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
And imagine how much more they could get done while they sit around on that red rock waiting to die.
What different position makes something other than water plausible? liquid forms of things we think of as "gasses" require it to be way out there, liquid forms of what we think of as "solids" require it to be way in there. There's a fairly small set of things liquid within the range of reasonable temperatures, and the obvious non-water choices are far more chemically complex.
Granted, our understanding of mechanics of evolving planetary systems is rudimentary, theoretical, and subject to massive revision over the next decade as we observe more exoplanets, but Mars migrating that far while keeping its surface intact doesn't seem likely at present; while we should remain open to that possibility, Occam's razor says assume it's water.
Nice job, submitting and subsequently accepting, an article with a link to the NASA article instead of some random blog linking to a multipage ad-heavy website that only vaguely discusses the NASA article. More of this, please.
Orange juice is mostly water, so water is still the correct answer.
Star Trek, there maybe hope.